What started out as a few blips and beeps has turned into full orchestral scores and original music by some of the world’s biggest bands. NPR has a great look at the history of music in our favorite past time.

The complexity of the music improved to the point where the score of a video game became almost indistinguishable from the music played in the finest concert halls. Wall went on to score the third and fourth installments of the Myst series, and he based the main theme for Myst III on Karl Orff’s Carmina Burana.

I remember the first time I heard the music in Zelda on the NES. I thought it was such a huge leap forward for video games. Now I look at things like Final Fantasy XII or Halo 3 or Uncharted and wonder what things will be like in another twenty years. We’ll probably have 10.1 channel sound cards embedded in our ears by that point.

Thanks to princess O for the tip!